To date, 3 major corporate sponsors of the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) have indicated they will not renew their memberships to the controversial conservative organization. Coca-Cola, PepsiCo, and Kraft Foods, Inc. made the announcements in recent days amid mounting criticism over ALEC's backing of "Stand Your Ground" gun laws, which have been implicated in the shooting death of Florida teen Trayvon Martin.

ProgressVA is now urging Virginia legislators to terminate their ALEC memberships as well. These known ALEC members include:

A recent ProgressVA report detailed the full effect of ALEC–which allows large corporations to write big-business friendly bills and helps legislators advance this legislation on the state level–on Virginia’s political system. At least 50 bills introduced in the General Assembly are directly traceable to ALEC and over $230,000 of taxpayer money has been spent sending legislators to ALEC junkets.

"The more we learn about ALEC and its detrimental effect on Virginia's public policy, the more obvious it becomes that there's no excuse for Virginia lawmakers and taxpayer dollars continued involvement in the organization," said Anna Scholl, ProgressVA Executive Director. "The fact that Coke, Pepsi and Kraft have left ALEC speaks volumes to how toxic the group has become. It's time for Virginia's ALEC members to follow suit."